3. Lately Hamid likes to give the impression that he's just an impartial observer

- merely a bystander to events, with no dog in this fight.

His assumed air of neutrality is likely as accurate a barometer of how fast we are losing over there, as we can get Stateside. All our information has to be filtered first through the Green Fog of the occupation forces, then squeezed out through the five sided sphincter of the Pentagon, before finally being transmitted to us by the servile yellow press. But Karzai's direct statements, such as "NATO failed" and "I may join the Taliban", cut through the filters: it's so bad our puppet wishes he could switch sides.

Old Vietnam watchers will probably be reminded of Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk.